A New Dawn, Joshua Tree National Park, California

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Joshua Tree National Park, with it's piled, granite boulders and otherworldly yuccas, was a fitting place to end the Milkweed Journey.

That journey is done. The milkweed seed balls have been scattered to every corner of the Lower 48, and even a few in Canada.

Goodbye, Liz.

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Smog, Kings Canyon National Park, California

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Can't make out the grandeur of Kings Canyon? Neither could I. Smog from California's Central Valley goes right up the mountains, up 7,000 ft. or more, to poison the trees and blight the view.

Here's what you're supposed to see.

All through the Central Valley, and Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, the air was hazy with ozone, dust, soot, organic pollutants, and cow shit. I'm talking hundreds of miles in every direction, even in the farm country.

Being in the filthy air made this the worst couple days of my trip. Walking through and breathing smog even up here in the Sierra Nevadas literally brought me to tears, like the Indian in that 70s pollution commercial.
I always thought California pushed harder clean air standards because they're more crunchy. No. They have a miasma that needs healing now.

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General Grant by Cars, Grant Grove, Sequoia National Park, California

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Technically, General Grant, the giant sequoia, is in Kings Canyon National Park. But I chose this picture to represent Sequoia National Park because the cars give you a good sense of scale.

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